1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus to execute user authentication and a method of executing user authentication in the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the frequent occurrence of security-related problems in the field of printing systems, user authentication is often executed with respect to functions provided by the systems. When a user uses a single account that supports a single password, all functions available to the user are protected by the single password. As a result, if the single password is compromised, all the functions for the user may be stolen and/or all the functions available to the user may be used by someone other than the user. Moreover, the use of the single password may not give the user the freedom to adjust the complexity of the password according to the security level of a function of the image forming apparatus, or the required protection level of personal information. Meanwhile, when the user uses a plurality of accounts, unnecessary resource consumption occurs, leading to inefficiency. Therefore, to execute user authentication in an image forming apparatus having a plurality of functions, there is a need for diversifying and differentiating user authentication.